在《新中国》和《黄岩语录》系列中，艺术家选择了一些在1949年至1978年期间的一些重要场景和事件。在《新中国》系列中，底部的国旗成为画面的道具，给人物和风景带来了舞台效应，强化了画面的历史性，并获得了一种史诗效果。黄岩采用文革中惯用的海报招贴的写实技法，这也是在美术学院最常规的革命现实主义题材的处理方法。

黄岩的另一系列油画作品——《黄岩语录》， 沿用了《新中国》系列中的工农兵形象。而文字多是他1984至1991年的诗歌，有几段当时的广告词。黄岩选用语录这一概念不是针对毛泽东的语录，而是想借此来还愿“语录”的本意：语言的纪录。黄岩借用1949年至1978年中国社会变革的公共图像，与他个人诗歌的历史迚行拼贴，将两种精神历史呈现在观众面前。

In the series New China and Quotations from Huang Yan, the artist selected certain remarkable scenes and events from the period of 1949 to 1978. In New China, a flag is splayed across the bottom of the paintings to create a stage for the figures and landscapes, conveying the historical significance of the scenes and achieving a thematically epic effect. Huang adapts the realistic painting style commonly used for propaganda posters during the Cultural Revolution, a style taught at art academies to represent revolutionary realism.

In Huang Yan’s other series, Quotations from Huang Yan, the subjects are the workers, peasants and soldiers from the New China series. Below, the artist has selected text either found from old advertise-ments from the period or poetry the artist wrote between 1984 and 1991. The title of the series mimics the title of the famous red book, Quotations from Mao Zedong. Instead of trying to adopt the exalted connotations of Mao’s title, the artist seeks to restore the ordinary definition of “quotations”, which is literally “recorded word.” Huang pieces together the public record of social change in China from 1949-1978 with his private history of words to simultaneously show the spirits of both national and personal evolution.